Since 2010, Viktor Orbán’s government has repeatedly taken antidemocratic and xenophobic measures that openly violate the basic principles of the rule of law.

"Since 2010, Viktor Orbán’s government has repeatedly taken antidemocratic and xenophobic measures that openly violate the basic principles of the rule of law. This situation, and the inadequacy of the EU’s response, has undermined the values underlying the European project as defined in Article 2 TEU: human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.

Furthermore, the unacceptable way the Hungarian authorities have treated migrants seems to have started influencing other Member States where the democratic culture is still recent and fragile.

In response to this situation, a committee of EU citizens has launched an ECI* to call on the European Commission to trigger Article 7 of TEU and bring the Hungarian issue to the Council. This article enables the Council to determine the existence of a serious and persistent breach by a Member State of the values referred to in Article 2. It may lead to sanctions against a Member State, including the suspension of its voting rights at the Council.

Since 2012, the European institutions have regularly dialogued and warned Viktor Orbán over his authoritarian measures, with little success so far. With Article 7 TEU, the EU would send a clear and strong signal that it wants to protect the fundamental values of the European project.

The initiative has now formally been filed with the European Commission (EC) which has 2 months (until 30 Nov) to officially admit it. However, the EC can decide to reject it if it thinks that the project does not fall into EU's competence.

As soon as the petition is admitted, we will be able to begin collecting signatures. We will let you know in due time how to sign it and how you can help us gathering the signatures.

In the meantime, if you want to show your support, you can write us at sign@act4democracy.eu with your personal details. We will come back to you in the following weeks to get your formal signature.

STAY TUNED and support Wake up Europe! The Citizens' Initiative to preserve European democracy."